
manna
manna (màn´e)
noun
1.Bible. In the Old Testament,
the food miraculously provided for the Israelites in the wilderness during
their flight from
Egypt.
2.Spiritual nourishment
of divine origin.
3.Something of value that
a person receives unexpectedly.
4.The dried exudate of certain
plants, as that of the Mediterranean ash tree, formerly used as a laxative.
5.A sweet granular substance
excreted on the leaves of plants by certain insects, especially aphids,
and often harvested by ants.
[Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin, from Greek, from Aramaic mannâ, from Hebrew mân.]
Manna
Manna, general name for several food substances, mostly sweetening agents, derived from unrelated plants. Flowering, or manna, ash, Fraxinus ornus (see Ash), produces from incisions an exudate that is 80 percent mannitol, a sugar alcohol, and is grown for this purpose in Sicily. Some members of the legume family, Alhagi species, native to Egypt and Syria, produce a similar kind of manna as an exudate on twigs. When it solidifies the bushes are shaken, knocking off the manna. When the scale insect Coccus manniparus punctures the bark of a Mediterranean species of tamarisk, Tamarix mannifera, a sweet substance is produced that falls to the ground and solidifies. Some experts believe that the manna of the Bible was the lichen Lecanora esculenta, or a related species. Arabs still gather this lichen and mix it with meal to produce bread. When dry, it can be torn from the soil and transported by the wind, producing a "rain" of food.
manna (noun)
food: manna
subvention: manna, manna in the wilderness, food
gift: bounty, manna
Food and Drink, 1275 B.C.
The wandering Jews (see 1275 B.C.) will survive starvation
at one point by eating "manna," possibly a kind of
mushroom.
Well when I found the Hebrew dictionary,
I found out that the Hebrew word for "What is it?" is Ma-Na. Manna literally
means the same thing, "What is it?" And when you understand that the Hebrew
people were actually, lived in
Egypt
for generations, they were the artisans, they were the metallurgists, they were
the craftsman. And when they left out
of Egypt they took this knowledge with them.
Curious enough, in the ancient
Egyptian text it was always referred to as the "What is it?", and if you
read in the papyrus of Ani that was found in the tomb of Pepe the 2nd in
old kingdom Egypt, it says, "I am purified of all imperfections,
what is it, I ascend like the golden hawk of
Horus,
what is it, I come by the
immortals
without dying, what is it, I come before my
father's throne, what is it, and it goes on and on, page after page, talking
about all these attributes that you acquire as you ascend, but they always
stop and ask the question, "What is it"?
--David Hudson, Dallas presentation---